Rock Spring School (aka Union School), 1884-1887

ROCK SPRING SCHOOL, first called UNION SCHOOL 4th District fl. 1884-1887 was located on a hill in the Rock Spring community. It was on the south side of the Rock Spring Road at the intersection of the present Waldron Road. The lane to the church and schoolhouse ran along the west side of the present Rock Spring Church of Christ. The Union Church is on the Beers Map of 1878. No record of the school is available prior to 1884.

On the site in the early 1830’s was a log Baptist Church. In 1832, the first Church of Christ in the country, known as the Union Church, took over the building. When the membership outgrew the building, a two-room brick
building was built of hand-made bricks with a kiln at the site. The back room was used as a school and was known as UNION SCHOOL.

According to school records, teachers were Mrs. Mary R. Douglas, who received thirty dollars a month for four months in 1884; and Miss Hattie Hunt, who received twenty-five dollars a month for two months in 1885.

The census or Enumeration of Scholastic Population between the ages of six and twenty-one showed on May 30, 1885: 32 white males, 36 white females, 7 colored males, and 5 colored females.

Money orders were given in 1886 to Miss Alice Battle for $88; in 1887, to Smith and Putman $26 for shingles; to Norvell and Wallace $29 for lumber, and to John Johnson $16 for work.

A cyclone in 1887 destroyed the church and school. A frame building was erected on the same site to house the ROCK SPRING SCHOOL. The Union Church was rebuilt as the Rock Spring Church at the bottom of the hill on land given by Columbus Lafayette Brittain and surveyed by Alice Battle.

Comments are closed.